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was never more universally acknowledged than at prefent; we all wish to appear learned, but do not like the trouble necessary to become so. A shorter way, therefore, was to be found out to convey inftruction under the femblance of pleasure, and inculcate the leffons of wildom by profeffing to amuse.

Actuated by this principle, and defirous of contributing to the instruction of their countrymen, Addifon and Steele were among us the first writers in this ftyle; and their labours were crowned with fuccefs. Allured by their example, numberlefs authors have attempted to imitate them; but few of them poffeffing either the genius, learning, or taste, requifite on the occafion, they have in gene ral miscarried. The author, however, of Sylva is an exception to this obfervation; he has fhewn himielf a man of obfervation and knowledge of the world; is often inftructive, and always amufing: many of his anecdotes are enterta`ning, and his mode of telling them lively; but he fometimes lofes fight of that delicacy which fhould ever diftinguish productions of this kind. His roth, 11th, 12th, 25th, and 28th, articles are of this fort.

In an advertisement prefixed to this volume, the author, after mentioning the cacosthes feribendi which univerfally prevail, quotes an expreffion of Solomon, that much study or reading is a weariness of the flesh; and goes on to remark," that whatever hurt it may caufe to the body, it must certainly caufe no lefs to the mind, by overloading the memory, and fifing all that refeftion which is neceffary to make reading of any kind ufeful;" and that the obfervation of Petrarch will ever be found true, who fays, dum plus bauriunt quam digerunt, ut ftomachis, fic etiam ingemiis, naufea fepius nocuit quam fames.

"And now after fuch an exordium, many will be curious and eager to afk, What gentlemen who thus complain of a redundancy of books, can poffibly mean by adding to the number?-To this the reply is, We would not have ours confidered as a book: we would rather call it (if we durft) the Beauties of Books. There are the Beauties of ShakeSpeare, the Beauties of Mufic and Poetry; and there are the Beauties of Fox, North, and Burke, which contain (we fuppofe) the Beauties of Politics. We would make ours, if we could, the Beauties of Knowledge, Wit, and Wifdam; felected from all indifcriminately

Plutarch. in Bruto.

who can furnish them, and brought more closely and compendiously together. The great object of our work is to make men wi fer, without obliging them to turn over folias and quartos; to furnish matter for thinking instead of reading."-To enable our readers to judge how far the author has fucceeded in this undertaking, we have felected the following Effay on English Patriotism, with the idea fo reigners have of it.

"Whoever should take a view of political manœuvres in England, must be ready to fuppofe it one of the best governed nations upon earth. For why? He would fee all ranks and profeffions, all ages and fexes anxious always, and fometimes even feditious, for just and right adminiftration in the affairs of state: but this apparent benefit is a real misfortune, as it tends to keep us ever rest. lefs and unquiet and I call the benefit ap parent, because upon a nearer infpection, this zeal for the state will ufually be found only a zeal for the zealot. I mean, that all his pretences and clamours for the public have, at the bottom, no other object but his own private emolument. Let me upon this occafion call forth a certain anecdote from Antiquity, which, while it illuftrates and countenances what I fay, may, by proper medita. tion, be rendered highly edifying: it is, that of more than fixty patriots, or libe ty men, who confpired against Julius Cæfar, not one, excepting Brutus, was believed to have been influenced by the nobleness and splendour of the deed, τη λαμπρότητι καὶ τῷ καλῷ τῆς pages, but to have acted folely from interefted and felfish motives *.

"The truth of the cafe is, and almost every one now feems reafonably well convinced of it, that all this bufstle and contest among us ist, not how the government fhall be administer. ed, but who fhall administer it : Magis que rum in manu fit, to ufe the language of Livy, quam ut incolumis fit refpublica quæri. And this is the idea which foreigners in general entertain of the English. "Very long experi ence proves," fays one of them," that the patriotifm of thofe who oppofe the govern ment, hath no other object but to teaze the fovereign, to thwart the measures of his mi nifters, to traverse their best concerted projects, and folely that themfelves may have a share in the miniftry. An English patriot is commonly nothing more than an ambitious

+"This conteft hath now for many years fo wholly taken up our political leaders, that the police of the kingdom, and all interior regulations, which far more concern our well-being and happiness than who shall govern, have been almoft totally neglected."

"The original goes on, "that is to fay, in the spoils of the nation," as if to plunder was equally the object of all who govern, This writer fhould feem to have thought with Themi

Stucles

man, who makes efforts to fucceed the Minifter he decries; or a covetous greedy-minded man, who wishes to amals treasure; or a factious, turbulent man, who feeks to restore a fhattered fortune. But are patriots of this ftamp formed to take fincerely to heart the interefts of their country? Accordingly, when they obtain the places they wanted, they follow precifely the tracks of their predeceffors, and become, in their turn, the objects of envy and clamour to thofe they difpotletfed, who are now again the patriots and favourites of the public; for a fickle, restlefs people always believe thofe to be their true friends who are the enemies of the perfons in pow. er; and thus, not a jot the wifer by experience, are ensnared and taken by the fame po pular arts practifed upon them in an eternal fucceffion *."

If the above be not a flattering, it is at leaft a ftriking likeness of a modern Patriot. The following obfervations on profeilional character are keen and fhrewd, and mark an intimate acquaintance with the human heart, tho' the ftrictures they contain will by many be thought too severe,

“RAMAZZINI, a physician of Padua, wrote a book De morbis artificum; to shew the pe culiar diftempers of tradefmen, arifing from each refpective trade, Might not a philofophic obferver construct a work upon a fimiJar plan, to mark the fpecific habitudes and manners of each respective order and profeffion?

"In the courfe of this difquifition, he would be led to obferve, for instance, that in. fincerity in a courtier must be the ruling feature of his character. And why? Because, without allowing any thing to private hu

mour, principle, or affection, the men of this order accommodate themfelves folely to times and perfons. He might afcribe lying to an Embassador, because, oeing " fent to lie abroad for the good of his country," as Sir Henry Wotton defined his office, he preferves an habit of lying, even when the officiality or duty of fo doing may not require it. A want of moral fenfe and fympathifing humanity would be found in men of the law; because, paying no regard to the diftinctions of right or wrong, but only intent on ferving their clients, they are led to treat with indifference, and fometimes even to fport with the molt injurious decifions against the most pitiable objects: the love of gain, in all who traffic; because fu h have been habituated to confider money as the chief good, and to value every man according to what he is worth: and, lafstly, an open fyftematical kind of knavery in the boneft farmer; who, without any regard to value in the commodity, profeffes to buy as cheap, and fell as dear, as he can; and who, if you remonftrate against his offering a horfe or cow for twice its worth, afks you with a fneer: Whether he must not do the best he can for his family?" Would not, I fay, all this be perceived, where profeffional (pirit is not checked or counteracted by natural temperament ? and thus thro' life, and every de partment of it, where the characters of men would be found in a compound ratio of temperament and profeflion; and be natural or artificial, according to the proportion in which these are combined."

The following decision of the King of Pruffia may ferve as a specimen of what the author calls anecdotes :

"A foldier of Silefia, being convicted of

ftocles; who, when the people of Athens murmured at exactions, and were importunate for the change of magistrates, pacified them with the following apologue :

"A fox flicking fast in a bog, whither he had defcended in quest of water, flies fwarmed upon him, and almost fucked out all his blood. To an hedge-hog, who kindly offered to difperíe them, No (replied the fox), for if thofe who are glutted be frighted away, an hungry fwarm will fucceed, who will devour the little blood remaining." PLUTARCH.

«Is not the fingle inftance of Pulteney fufficient to cure men of being hallooed and led en furiously by patriots, if experience could make wife? Walpole's ministry was oppofed and attacked many years, and Pulteney was at the head of the Oppofition; yet no fooner was Walpole driven off, than Pulteney and Carteret entered into private negociations with the Newcastle party, who were men of Walpole's measures; and, compromifing matters, Pulteney became Lord Bath, and Carteret Lord Granville. They took very few of their compatriots with them into the miniftry; and Lord Chesterfield being one that was left behind, expreffed his refentment thus, in a paper called "Old England; or, the Conftitutional Journal, No. 1. Feb. 5, 1743." "This paper (fays he) is undertaken against those who have found the fecret of acquiring more infamy in ten months, than their predecessors, with all the pains they took, could acquire in twenty years. We have seen the noble fruits of twenty years opposition blasted by the connivance and treachery of a few, who, by all the ties of gratitude and honour, ought to have cherished and preferved them to the people."

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+ Our good Chriftian farmer, however, may deign to learn a better leffon from an heathen: Ex omni vitâ fimulatio diffimxlatioque tollenda eft: ita nec ut emat melius, nec ut vendat, quidquam fimulabit aut diffimulabit vir banus. Cicero de Offic. III. 15.

Stealing

ftealing certain offerings to the Virgin Mary, was doomed to death asa facrilegious robber; but he denied the commiffion of any theft, faying, that the Virgin, from pity to his poverty, had prefented him with the offerings. The affair was brought before the King, who afked the popish divines, whether, according to their religion, the miracle was impoffible? They replied, that the cafe was extraordina ry, but not impoffible. "Then," faid the King, "the culprit cannot be put to death, because he denies the theft, and because the divines of his religion allow the prefent not to be impoffible; but we strictly forbid him, under pain of death, to receive bencefor

ward any prefent from the Virgin Mary, or any Saint whatever." This, I take it, was anfwering fools according to their folly, and is an inftance of wifdom as well as wit."

Upon the whole, we confefs we have been highly entertained by the perufal of this work, which, to use the author's words, we recom mend to men who have been liberally train ed, and are not unacquainted with languages (and for fuch it was chiefly intended); men, who may wish to have some sabulum mentis, or mental fodder, always at hand, but whofe profeflions or fituations in life do not permit leifure to turn over volumes.

Supplement to the Antiquities of England and Wales. By Francis Grofe, Efq. F. R. S. 4to. Hooper. 1786.

R. Grofe, to whom the lovers of Anti

MR

quities are much obliged for his unwearied endeavours to gratify their tafte, informs us, in an advertisement preceding this Supplement, that he meant, after publifhing his last volume, to have laid down his pen and pencil, from an apprehenfion, that by continuing his work he might have led the original encouragers of it into a greater expence than they at first either expected or intended.

So repeated, however, have been the folicitations from a number of respectable people to the author to continue and extend the work, that, yielding to them, and farther urged by his fondness for the fubject, he has refumed his labours, and added this Supplement; the rather, as the work having been regularly clofed, this addition would not fub. ject the original encouragers to the inconveDience he apprehended.

Mr. Grofe was at firft in doubt whether the Supplement should confift of one or two volumes, but has been determined by the opinion of the public and his friends to extend it to two volumes, of which this is the firit : the fecond will be published with all convenient fpeed; and the author promifes the purchafers that the plates fhali be executed in a manner at leaft equal to the best in the former volumes. That this promife will be literally fulfilled, if we are to judge from the volume before us, there remains not the leaft doubt.

The author has prefixed feveral addenda to the preface of the Antiquities; among others, an ancient code of military laws, and an account of Druidical monuments.

The fubjects in this Supplement are chiefly felected from counties omitted in the body of the work, or flightly touched upon.

Among thofe in Hampshire, we find the following account of Kiug John's House, at Warnford.

port.

"This venerable ruin, which has fo long remained unnoticed by the curious, stands in the garden of the Earl of Clanricard, at Warmford, on the high road from London to GofIt is known by the title of King John's Houfe, an appellation common to many ancient structures in which that King had no concern; King John and the Devil being the founders, to whom the vulgar impute moft of the ancient buildings, mounds, or intrenchments, for which they cannot dign any other constructor; with this diftinétion, that to the king are given moft of the minfons, caitles, and other buildings, whilt the Devil is fuppofed to have amused himself chiefly in earthen works; fuch as his Ditch at Newmarket, Punch-bowl at Hind-head, with divers others too numerous to mention.

"In the map of Hampshire engraved by Norden, about the year 16 16, this building is marked as a ruin; and in fome writings of more ancient date, belonging to the Clanricard family, it is conveyed with the manor and prefent manfion by the denomination of the Old Houfe.

"What it originally was, can only be conjectured. Two ancient infcriptions on the parish church, the firft on the north the fecond on the fouth fide, within the porch, feem to afford fome grounds to fuppofe it the ancient church built by Wilfric Bishop of York, between the years 679, when he took refuge among the South Saxons, and 685, when he returned to his fee.

The infcription on the north is as follows: "Adæ hic de Portu, folis benedicat ab ortu, Gens cruce fignata, per quem fic fum re

novata.

"May all Christian people, even from the rifing of the fun,

Bless Adam de Port, by whom I was thus renovated."?

On the fouth fide.

Fratres orate,

Prece veftra fanétificate,

Templi Factores,

Seniores et Juniores,
Wilfric fundavit,

Bonus Adam fic renovavit.

"Brethren, both young and old, pray; and, with your prayers, hallow the builders of this church, which Wilfric founded, and good Adam thus renovated."

"The whole of this conjecture rests on the word renovavit, which is not always confined to repairing or rebuilding the identical edifice, but is often used to express a different building, appropriated to the fame purposes

to which the former was devoted.

"This ruin meafures on the outfide 80 feet, from eait to weft, and 54 from north to fouth; its walls are four feet thick, and conftructed of fint fet in grout-work. It is divided into two unequal rooms; the largest or eafternmolt, 46 feet by 48, has two windows on the north, and two on the fouth, as alfo two doors on the north and fouth walls, near the western extremity, and another in the weft fide, leading to the leffer room. At about 18 feet from the east and weft walls,

and ten from the north and fouth, stand four columns, which with four half columus, let into the east and weft walls, once probably fupported a vaulted roof. Thefe columns, which are of two different forts, shaft and capital included, measure nearly twenty-f feet, or eight diameters; they are of tone, as compact and durable as marble; their bafes octogonal; molt of the arches of the doors and windows are circular.

-five

"When this building was firft taken notice of, it was used as a barn, and covered with a modern roof. This has been fince taken off, and it now forms a very striking ornament to he garden,"

This volume alfo contains three views of Malmsbury Abbey, Wiltshire; and nine views in the islands of Guernsey and Jersey, exclufive of the frontispiece, which is a curious drawing of Castle Cornet, in Guernsey, in the state it was before 1672, when the powder magazine being fet on fire by lightning, the great tower or keep, with many houfes and other handíome buildings, were blown up and demolished; of which dreadful catatrophe the following is faid to be an authentic and accurate account.

"On Sunday night, about twelve o'clock, on the 29th of December 1672, the night being very ftormy and tempeftuous, and the wind blowing hard at S. S. W. to which af pect the door of the magazine exactly fronted, the thunderbolt or clap which accompanied

this dreadful calamity, was heard to come circling (or as it were ferpentizing) over the platform, from the fouth-west. In an inftant of time, not only the whole magazine was blown into the air, but also all the houses and lodgings of the caftle; particularly fome "fair and beautiful buildings that had just been erected, at great expence, under the care and direction of lord viscount Hatton, the then governor, who was at that time within the buildings of the caftle.

"By this accident the lady dowager Hatton was killed by the fall of the cieling of her chamber, which fell in four pieces, and killed her on the fpot. The right honourable the lady Hatton, the governor's wife, and daughter of the earl of Thanet, was likewife deftroyed in the following manner. — - Her ladyfhip being greatly terrified at the thunder and lightning, infifted upon being removed from the chamber fhe was in to the nursery. She and her woman, in a few minutes after, fell a facrifice, by one corner of the nurseryroom falling in upon them.

"In the fame room was alfo killed a drynurfe, who was found dead, with my lord's fecond daughter in her arms, holding a small filver cup in her hands which the ufually played with, which was all rimpled and bruifed; yet the young lady did not receive the left hurt. This nurfe had likewife oue of her hands fixed upon the cradle, in which lay my lord's youngest daughter, and the cradle almoft filled with rubbish, yet the child received no fort of prejudice. Befides thefe, one enlign Covert, mr. William Prole, my lord's tteward, and feveral other perfons, were destroyed by the fame accident.

Having given this account of tho e who perfhed, I thall briefly mention fome of thote who were mott miraculously preferved in this extraordinary difafter.

"Firit, the governor, who at that time had his apartment in a convenient house which his lordship had built about two years before. This houfe ftood N. by E. from the magazine, and very near it His lordthip, at the time it blew up, was fait in flzep, and was carried away by the explosion, in his bed, upon the battlements of a wall just adjoining to his house, and was not awaked but by a flower of hail that fell upon his face, ani made him fenfible where he was. This, no doubt, muft appear very extraor dinary, but is averred to be fact. A molt miraculous prefervation indeed, nothing being left standing of the house but the door cafe,

"From the battlements he was conveyed by two blacks, (who, among other feivants, attended him to the guard-room of the caîtie under the deepest affliction) to know what was become of his lady, offering 1ocol. to whoever

whoever should bring her alive to him; but no news could be learnt of her ladyship's fate till day-light, when he was found crushed to death in the manner before related.

"Under his lordship's apartment was a chamber belonging to the lieutenant of his company, who, by the violence of the shock, was carried out of his room, and tumbled into an entry on the ground-floor, but received no hurt.

"At the upper buildings of the castle were feveral apartments, and people in them all, particularly his lordship's fifters, upon whom a beam fell, or rather glanced, in fuch a manner, that though they were both together when it fell in, they could not afterwards get at each other; yet neither of them received any fenfible hurt; nor did any other in thofe apartments receive any harm, though feveral of the rooms fell in wherein many of them were in bed, and fome of the floors were in heaps of rubbish about them.”

We shall conclude this account with Prynne's poetical view of Gowray, or Mont Orgueil Castle, in Jersey, not on account of its poetry, but as it affords a general idea of its appearance, and the book is fcarce.

"Mont Orgueil Caftle is a lofty pile, Within the eastern parts of Jersey lne, Seated up on a rock, full large and high, Clofe to the fea-fhore, next to Norman e, Near to a fandy bay, where bo...s doe ride Within a peere, fafe both from wind and tide: Three parts thereof the flowing feas furround, The fouth (north-westwards) is firme rocky ground,

A proud high mount it hath, a rampier long, Foure gates, foure pofternes, bulwarkes, fconces, ftrong;

All built with ftone, on which there mount

ed lie

Fifteen caft pieces of artillery,
With fundry murdering chambers, planted fo,
As beft may fence ittelf, and hurt a foe.
A guard of foldiers ftrong (till warre
Begins to thunder) in it lodged are,
Who watch and ward it duly night and day,
For which the king allows them monthly pay:
The governor, if prefent, here doth lie;
If abfent, his lieutenant-deputy.

A man of warre the keys doth keepe, ard locke [rocke. The gates each night at this high-towering The caftle's ample, airy, healthy, and The prospect pleasant, both by fea and land. Two boisterous foes fometimes affaul: with loffe [croffe

The fortreffe, which their progreffe feemes to The raging waves below, which ever dash Themfelves in pieces, whiles with it they

clash."

Mr. Grofe has alfo just published the two first numbers of a work, intitled, "Military Antiquities refpecting a Hiftory of the Englith Army, from the Conqueft to the prefent Time:" in which he propofes giving an hiftorical and chronological detail of the dif ferent constituent parts of the English army during that period, with the various changes they have undergone. These he propofes treating under the following heads :

An account of the Anglo Saxon army before the battle of Hattings. The general outlines of the feudal fyttem which respects military fervice. The conftitutional force of the kingdom after the Norman Invasion, with the regulations relative thereto :

Administration of justice, and the various manners of trying military delinquents:

Artillery; the ancient machines; the ir. vention of gun-powder, cannors and mortars, with their improvements :

Fortification; the ancient manner of attack and defence of towns, with the alterations and improvements fince the invention of gun. powder, &c.

The whole to be comprifed in twenty-fix numbers, each containing three plates, and four fheets of letter prefs. The price 35.

each number

From Mr. Grofe's well-known patience and application, his penchant for the fubject, and his practical experience for many years in divers branches of it, we doubt not of his completing the undertaking in a manner that will do him credit, as well as merit the at tention of the public.

The Efficacy of a Sinking Fund of One Million per Annum, confidered. By Sir Francis Blake. 8vo. IS Debrett.

THE Baronet objects to the Minister's

plan, that it is weak and inefficient, unless we can fuppofe a continued peace during the time required to pay off the national debt, as five years war will wailow up all the provifions of the twenty years peace.

Whoever finds fault with the plan of another, fhould propofe a better himself. Sir Francis accordingly informs us, that two ways occur to him to increase the furplus fuffici

ently. The firft is, " that all men should determine forthwith to be honeft and true to the ftate; in which cafe I have no doubt but the prefent taxes would be fufficiently productive. The other is"-Stop, gentle Reader - Sir Francis, on farther confideration, begs leave to be excufed from naming it; "for fear of bringing all the drones in the kingdom about his ears at once."

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